You're guilty of crime in the first degree,
Second and third as well.
My jury finds you'll be serving your time
When you go straight to hell.

'Cause he was Lord of the Lightning,
Though "socially frightening",
But never out to sell.

Their nickels and pence
Meant more than did sense,
And not the sensible thing.

Nor did the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy, you was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
All along, world was wrong, you was right.

All that he saw, all he conceived,
They just could not believe.
Steinmetz and Twain were friends that remained,
Along with number three.
He was electromagnetic, completely kinetic,
"New Wizard of the West."
But they swindled and whined that he wasn't our kind,
And said Edison knew best.

He was the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy, you was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
Said you was outta your mind!

You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.

I spent twelve years of hard time,
More like the best years of my life.
Never heard or read a single word
About "the man" and his "wicked mind."
They'll sell you on Marconi.
Familiar, but a phony.
Story goes they sold their souls
And swore that you'd never know.

About the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy, you was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
Swore you was outta your mind!

You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.

You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.

17 Comments

It's a shame more people probably know about this band than they know about the scientist...

Or the new car that came out. Anyone hear about it? It sounds pretty sweet.

Anywaaaay. Here's my interpretation:

"You're guilty of crime in the first degree,
Second and third as well.
My jury finds you'll be serving your time
When you go straight to hell.

'Cause he was Lord of the Lightning,
Though "socially fright'ning",
But never out to sell.

Their nickels and pence
Meant more than did sense,
And not the sensible thing."

Edison was guilty of just selling out. Nikola Tesla never invented for the money, he invented to better the world. (Which is why Edison was livin' easy later on, whilst Tesla died with lots of hardship.)

"Nor did the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy. You was one of a kind."

Tesla's nickname is "Man Out of Time". Mostly everyone thought he was crazy. He was just a genius. (-:

"Man outta time, man outta time.
All along, world was wrong. You was right."

Like I said, the world thought he was crazy, and all his ideas were wrong.

"All that he saw, all he conceived,
They just could not believe.
Steinmetz and Twain were friends that remained,
Along with number three.
He was electromagnetic, completely kinetic,
"New Wizard of the West."
But they swindled and whined that he wasn't our kind,
And said Edison knew best."

No one could believe his ideas, but Steinmetz and Mark Twain were his friends. Not sure what number three means. George Westinghouse, perhaps?

He was sort of a wizard, when you think about it. Definitely a pioneer of technology...way ahead of his time. (Or ahead of the fashion, if you've read "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". (: )

Yeah, and everyone was like, "But Edison invented the lightbulb!!!!one//1" (Except not really like that, of course. No keyboards.) And that isn't even strictly true. He invented the covering for it, I do believe. Anyway, the world generally cared for Edison more, I'm sad to report.

"You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine."

Tesla tried extremely hard, but in the end, he didn't win. His inventions are recognized and used every day of our lives, but percentage-wise, almost no one knows who he is.

Edison's Medicine? I'm probably being stupid, but I don't know what that really means. Like Edison stuck it to 'im? (:

"I spent twelve years of hard time,
More like the best years of my life.
Never heard or read a single word
About "the man" and his "wicked mind."
They'll sell you on Marconi.
Familiar, but a phony.
Story goes they sold their souls
And swore that you'd never know..."

Marconi didn't invent the radio. (Make sure you all know that. There will be a test. Thank you.)

And the onyl other thing this set of lyrics is saying is that no one hears about Tesla. It's kept pretty hush-hush by the government.

The earlier interpretations of this song seem mostly correct to me; I'll add only a few ideas here:
"All that he saw, all he conceived....they just could not believe", etc. most likely refers to the inability of laymen or financiers to chance on/ or interpret the concepts of visionaries like Nikola Tesla. e.g. The world is not flat after all.
"Steinmetz and Twain were the friends that remained, along with number 3"
I'm fairly certain the "number 3" refered to here is TIME magazine's volume 18, issue number 3 released on July 20, 1931 which contained an article about Tesla (and featured him on the cover) that depicted him in a favorable light.
"But they sniveled and whined and he wasn't our kind, etc."
Edison was not "crazy" per se and was easier to accept. His ideas were more easily digestible...Tesla disappears into obscurity...except in Croatia where he's one of their proudest countrymen.
"You took a shot and it did you in...Edison's Medicine" I think this is a reference to Tesla's bold and fearless attempts at sharing his inventions with the world...but falling flat by contrast with the likes of Marconi and Edison....I think it's irony they're going for here. Edison's Medicine being a hard pill to swallow for Tesla.

General CommentAtomichron pretty much nailed it. I discovered Tesla long after I had graduated high school. Just like the song said, never heard or read a single word about Nikola Tesla. Heard plenty about Edison, but Tesla completely outshone Edison. But, since Tesla was born in Austria, and Edison was American, we only learn about Edison.

tesla was born in austrian empire, in smiljan, in teritory of today croatia (im croat so i now ;) but he was etnicly serbian. in school we learn a lot about his words " ponosim se svojim srpskim rodom i hrvatskom domovinom " or " im proud of my serbian origin and my croatian motherland. on the early 90' wen the war was start in croatia tesla was improper and his big monument was destroy (in gospic, small town nearly village smiljan). tesla was rehabilited later, and about 2005. his another big monument was placed in center of zagreb (capital of croatia)

"Steinmetz and Twain were friends that remained,
Along with number three."

i know nikola tesla had a obsessive compulsion to stay in hotel rooms with numbers divisible by three. perhaps the "number three" that remained his friend means the literal number three? i'm not sure if he obsessed about the digit in other areas of his life.

perhaps the term "edison's medicine" is a reference to tesla himself and the fact that he was the "medicine" to edison's virus?

"All that he saw, all he conceived,
They just could not believe."

tesla was brilliant, and proposed things which even today are hard to believe. think teleportation, time travel, recording thoughts on paper.

"You took a shot and it did you in."

at first, i thought this meant tesla died from a gunshot, but he wasn't shot. maybe it means he took risks for the sake of his ambitious ideas, and suffered many hardships and poverty for it? in fact, now that i think of, that fits perfectly!

General CommentIt's nice to know that these are definitely the lyrics because as far as I can tell, they're the only ones published by the band (unless maybe there's a tab book out there or something. (see Wonderful World lyrics, they're totally wrong in a couple places). But anyway, Edison's Medicine, about their namesake getting screwed over by Edison and Marconi. Great ditty.

General Commenttesla was born in austrian empire, in smiljan, in teritory of today croatia (im croat so i now ;) but he was etnicly serbian. in school we learn a lot about his words " ponosim se svojim srpskim rodom i hrvatskom domovinom " or " im proud of my serbian origin and my croatian motherland. on the early 90' wen the war was start in croatia tesla was improper and his big monument was destroy (in gospic, small town nearly village smiljan). tesla was rehabilited later, and about 2005. his another big monument was placed in center of zagreb (capital of croatia)

General Commenttesla was born in austrian empire, in smiljan, in teritory of today croatia (im croat so i now ;) but he was etnicly serbian. in school we learn a lot about his words " ponosim se svojim srpskim rodom i hrvatskom domovinom " or " im proud of my serbian origin and my croatian motherland. on the early 90' wen the war was start in croatia tesla was improper and his big monument was destroy (in gospic, small town nearly village smiljan). tesla was rehabilited later, and about 2005. his another big monument was placed in center of zagreb (capital of croatia).

General CommentA friend just sent this to me, I am a big fan of Tesla and my company builds high amp alternators named after him.

The reason Tesla was obsessed with the number 3 is because it is the center of his work, the 3 phase motor, without it we would have nothing today. Because of it we were able to build hydro-generators and a small version of that is the alternator in automobiles, if it is an electric motor it is most likely a 3 phase. The stator has 3 phases like a bar stool has 3 legs. The story goes that Tesla drew the first 3 phase motor in the dirt with a stick when walking along with a friend when he was quite young.

Ironically the Tesla vehicle is battery powered and does not have much to do with Tesla’s work, other than the drive motors, on the other hand I think Tesla would be quite impressed with the Fisker, but probably not the price.